A WAVE of celebration following a village school’s successful campaign to stay open has turned out to be premature after council chiefs revealed it could be closed down after all.

Plans to omit Delamere C of E Primary School from a recent round of consultations – part of Cheshire County Council’s Transforming Learning Communities (TLC) review – have been shelved.

Cheshire’s Labour politicians are unhappy the county’s council’s Conservative administration voted against initial recommendations statutory consultations should take place over the possible closure of the school.

Labour group deputy leader and TLC spokesman, Peter Nurse, said: ‘It is my contention that helping keep open these small schools is against the rationale of Transforming Learning Communities.

‘It is wasteful of public monies.’

A meeting of the Children's Services Executive will now take place on October 1.

Cheshire’s lead member for children's services, Cllr David Rowlands, said: ‘We are following Government policy and there are different criteria for closing rural schools, many of them at the heart of their community. This must be a major consideration.

‘We must take the time needed to find acceptable solutions to the problem of falling rolls in small rural schools.’